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Sep 26, 2008 6:08 pm US/Eastern
Some Finding Loophole In Smoking Ban
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
On top of the drink tax and the soft economy, the smoking ban has kind of become the coffin nail in the cash register of bars and restaurants.
Although some places are finding a loophole.
"I can tell you right off the bat, three customers that were here in my building three to four days a week no longer stop out of principal they stopped coming all together," said Marc "Bubba" Snider, owner of Bubba's Ugly on the North Shore.
While Snider's neighbors at Firewaters and Mullen's report little impact on business so far, he says business at Ugly is hurting and he's hoping his request for an exemption will be approved.
Meanwhile, the folks at Silvoni's in Ross Township know they won't qualify for an exemption, but they say they sure could use one.
"For the last two weeks I can definitely say it's 50 percent off. We're losing our customers to go up the street, if they do come down here they'll eat, but then they leave," said Susie Dragun, of Silvioni's. "They're not coming into the bar area to drink and it's hurting.
But at bars like 222 on Federal Street, and Shenanigans on Babcock Boulevard, which still allow smoking, the ashtrays are busy and business is up.
Ugly's is among the 3,100 places that have filed for exemptions.
Meanwhile, the state has received 150 smoking complaints. But of those, 60 were at bars that have applied for exemptions and - a catch - they can keep on lighting up until the state rules on the exemption.
However, some say the flood of exemption requests were a deliberate ploy to keep on smoking.
Incredibly, the cash register pain of the smoking ban is self-induced by honesty, since there is currently no mechanism to enforce the smoking ban in Allegheny County, no smoke police, no designated inspectors and none on the horizon. So bar owners have to weigh the amount of loss they're experiencing against the possibility of a fine some where in the not so foreseeable future.
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